Morecambe boss Bentley: We played to Carlisle’s strengths

Jim Bentley believes a lack of quality in the final third cost his side in their Boxing Day defeat to Carlisle.

David Amoo’s strike that squirmed under Scott Davies six minutes into the second half was enough to split the sides in front of a bumper Globe Arena crowd.

The Shrimps saw their struggling visitors get plenty of men behind the play as the hosts failed to replicate previous home wins against League 2 high fliers Bury and Luton.

Bentley said: “Obviously I’m disappointed.

“After the last two games here you’re hoping we can do exactly the same but after beating top sides who fancy winning every game I think Carlisle came here with a game plan.

“They were strong, played for the long ball into the big lad, played for set plays and played for a little bit of luck which they got with the goaI. “Scott Davies has been superb for us since he’s come in and he’s disappointed, I’m not going to point the finger at him. It’s one of those things.

“It’s a sign of how far we’ve come that a team the size of Carlisle United are coming to Morecambe and sitting in and that’s where the difference lies when people say ‘how can you beat the likes of Bury but you can’t beat Carlisle who are in the bottom three or four?’.

“That’s what we’ve seen today. The lads have given it their all and been excellent in that respect but my only gripe is that we just didn’t show enough thought.

“We played some good stuff, got into some good areas, but when we went 1-0 down we probably played to their strengths a little bit, too many balls from wide areas on the centre halves’ heads.

“The disallowed goal was one example where we moved it around quickly and got in but we just needed a little bit more of that.

“We’re disappointed we’ve lost the game but there are positives, it’s one of those smash and grabs.”